AFTERMATH: NIBIRU 2012 !

ADVENTURE IN THEEARTHSEVENYEARSAFTERTHEAPOCALYPSE OF DECEMBER 21, 2012

“The Nibiru cataclysm is a supposed disastrous encounter between the Earth and a large planetary object (either a collision or a near-miss) which certain groups believe will take place in the early 21st century. Believers in this doomsday event usually refer to this object as Planet X or Nibiru. The idea that a planet-sized object could collide with or pass by Earth in the near future is not supported by any scientific evidence and has been rejected as pseudoscience by astronomers and planetary scientists…Although the name “Nibiru” is derived from the works of the late ancient astronaut writer Zecharia Sitchin and his interpretations of Babylonian and Sumerian mythology, Sitchin denied any connection between his work and various claims of a coming apocalypse…" (from ‘Nibiru Cataclysm’ wikipedia)

That was what everybody thought. Come 21st of December, 2012, as people all over the world were waiting for their usual Christmas bonuses while going over their last-minute yuletide shopping lists, something massive about more or less twice the size of the moon suddenly appears within the earth’s atmosphere – too close that it’s gravity wreaks havoc on the world. The axis of the Earth shifts removing the tilt but triggering a world-wide intensity 10.0 earthquake, immediately followed by a global tsunami and simultaneous volcanic eruptions that ravage the planet. The planetoid object is none other than Nibiru, at times called Planet X; it has finally come to the earth, as the prophets of doom said it would. The gravity of the Earth, however, also exerts it’s own influence on the rogue planet & with the Earth’s gravity having the stronger pull due to it’s being larger than Nibiru, causes the rogue planet to break apart, which only makes things worse. Huge chunks of the rogue planet come crashing through the earth’s atmosphere and hits the land, crashes into the oceans, vaporizing remaining cities and leveling mountains. Other debris hits the moon, severely altering its shape into something more irregular, although it basically survives intact.

The face of the Earth is changed on that fateful day; gulf tides change, the continents known to us sink beneath newly-formed oceans as new continents rise, even absorbing many existing land-masses; the Antarctic continent goes below the waves as several continents rise at the arctic circle; most North & South America, China, Africa, & eastern & western Europe submerges forming new oceans, as a new mega continent(?) emerges along the new equator, absorbing much of Asia & Australia; a new continent(?) also emerges in the area of what used to be just south of the area of South America.

Happening alongside these cataclysmic rearrangement of the earth’s surface are the lava flows from the world-wide volcanic eruptions, plus the superstorms, hurricanes, & sandstorms resulting from the abruptly disturbed climate & weather conditions of the world. Billions of people die in the first hours, with the death toll rising as no bunker is completely safe & no ship survive the hellish storms & tsunamis that wrack the oceans. The ecology of the planet is changed, creating mass animal and plant extinctions. But even this apocalyptic upheaval must pass, for once the worst of it is over, the Earth finds a new stability. A few scattered thousands world-wide escaped total destruction, but most of the world’s population is gone. The few survivors begin to find a way to live in this new earth.

It is seven years now after this apocalyptic event, and in the earth of 2019, a new environment with new flora & fauna – much of it a modification of what used to be known species’ in the old earth, as well species unseen before – co-exist with the surviving peoples having now redistributed themselves forming new communities scattered over the new continents of the world. A lot of these survivors & their offspring also exhibit changes much different from the known human norm. Mutations abound, owing perhaps to the mysterious agents introduced by the ruined parts of the rogue Nibiru into the earth’s new environment, and perhaps also due to the massive cataclysm that has recently occurred, altering the form of life as we know into new variations; now physically different people exhibit new capabilities & sadly, new defects & deformities, which cause them to distribute & segregate themselves in new ways, either cooperating & relying on each other for survival using whatever resource they can obtain from their new surroundings or whatever is left midst of the ruins of old civilization, much of it in hulking ruins, but still intact, or finding new reasons to despise & distrust one another. In relation to this, alongside those men & women who have chosen to group into new communities for benefit among themselves & others who may wish to join their circle, are those other men & women who have, in the wake of the apocalyptic horror that have severely warped them body & mind, degenerated into lawless barbarism banding together in groups that has come to be known as ‘marauders’ raiding other settlements to take what they need, living on a code a violence that make them take advantage of the weak for their own pleasure, and even turning against each other on occasion, showing that they have no true allegiance among themselves, feeling that they have to kill or be killed.

And so it is to this new earth, with its new inhabitants & in its new places – with huge chunks of the broken up former Nibiru kept in perpetual earth orbit along with the now deformed moon – that potential new heroes must find their place in – to survive & prosper.

This post-apocalyptic campaign uses the D20 Apocalypse campaign setting, as well of course the D20 modern Core Rule Book & the D20 Future rules supplement, plus other compatible D20 modern material as suited. Enjoy !